ENGLAND might have given Twenty20 to the world, but it has not taken the world long to catch up and overtake. As Pakistan sped to success — or ambled, in the case of Inzamam-ul-Haq — they must have felt relieved at the decision not to boycott the rest of the tour. On this early evidence, rich pickings lie ahead.

The potential difficulties facing England deepened within an hour of the result when Stephen Harmison, who did not play, was ruled out of the forthcoming one-day NatWest Series. Harmison had a scan on his lower back early last week but has not responded to treatment. His season may be at a premature end.

Having lost all six limited-overs internationals to Sri Lanka this summer, this result was depressingly familiar for England, who did not recover from the loss of three wickets in five balls early in the innings. A total of 144 was some way below par and Shahid Afridi soon gave the reply the impetus it needed.

Stuart Broad and Michael Yardy made encouraging contributions on their debuts, but the booming self-confidence of Darren Gough would not have countenanced such a harrowing return after more than a year away from cricket’s limelight. If he had a late say in events, it was only because Abdul Razzaq clouted him for the winning four.

Although Pakistan were playing their first international in the format, their players have experience at their equivalent of county level. Shoaib Malik and Rana Naved-ul-Hasan were in the Sialkot Stallions team who beat Faisalabad Wolves in the domestic final over the winter, the match in Karachi finishing at 2am because of crowd trouble.

Thankfully, there were no disruptions yesterday. A small section of the 15,000 crowd barracked Inzamam when he emerged to bat, but victory with 13 balls to spare represented an unequivocal response from his team. They will be favourites to win the 50-overs series, which begins in Cardiff tomorrow.

Whatever the sensitivities of the occasion, England were playing as hard as usual. Ian Bell, opening the innings, decided not to walk on the say-so of Younis Khan when the fielder held a low catch at slip at the second attempt. Replays confirmed that it had carried and Bell’s dismissal prompted a mini collapse.

Kevin Pietersen fell first ball to Mohammad Asif, attempting to play through the leg side, and Andrew Strauss edged driving two balls later. Kamran Akmal held a good catch to his left and Asif completed the first maiden over in the brief history of Twenty20 internationals.

The pitch had good bounce and carry, but not enough movement to justify the flurry of wickets that continued when a scratchy Paul Collingwood feathered a second catch to Akmal. Pakistan could only be encouraged with their first-choice pace attack of Shoaib Akhtar, Asif and Naved together for the first time on the tour.

Shoaib, almost pushing off from the advertising boards, produced a couple of hostile balls to Bell, despite being short of full pace. At least Marcus Trescothick was happier than his partner on the back foot, reaching his fifty from 33 balls to add to his 41 in the Twenty20 international against Australia in 2005 and 72 against Sri Lanka.

Jamie Dalrymple is yet to bat in a promising situation for England and he reprised his Red Adair act once more alongside Trescothick. England lurched well behind the run-rate they would have expected and by the time Trescothick became the first of Razzaq’s three wickets, almost 15 overs had gone with the score still in double figures.

Some clumping blows by Yardy helped things along and Broad struck with the fourth and fifth balls of his second over to hint at what lies ahead from him. Nothing, however, will have prepared him for Afridi’s response to the hat-trick ball: a high drive over mid-on that produced two runs but could have found a fielder.

Afridi faced only ten balls but hit 28 runs, including a straight four, a whipped six and a carved four in succession against Broad. Sajid Mahmood suffered similar treatment and when Mohammad Hafeez was run out in a misunderstanding with Inzamam, it was clear that all is back to normal in the Pakistan camp.

SCOREBOARD

ENGLAND
M E Trescothick c Akmal b Razzaq 53
I R Bell c Younis b Akhtar 14
K P Pietersen b Asif 0
*A J Strauss c Akmal b Asif 0
P D Collingwood c Akmal b Naved-ul-Hasan 2
J W M Dalrymple c Akhtar b Razzaq 27
M H Yardy not out 24
C M W Read c Naved-ul-Hasan b Razzaq 13
S I Mahmood not out 0
Extras (b 1, lb 7, w 2, nb 1) 11
Total (7 wkts, 20 overs) 144
D Gough and S C J Broad did not bat.
FALL OF WICKETS: 1-39, 2-40, 3-40, 4-50, 5-97, 6-114, 7-130.

BOWLING: Shoaib Akhtar 4-0-31-1; Mohammad Asif 4-1-21-2; Rana Naved-ul-Hasan 4-0-26-1; Shahid Afridi 4-0-28-0; Abdul Razzaq 4-0-30-3.

PAKISTAN
Shoaib Malik lbw b Broad 16
Mohammad Hafeez run out 46
Younis Khan c Read b Broad 0
Shahid Afridi c Yardy b Dalrymple 28
Mohammad Yousuf c Bell b Yardy 20
* Inzamam-ul-Haq not out 11
Abdul Razzaq not out 17
Extras (lb 2, w 7, nb 1) 10
Total (5 wkts, 17.5 overs) 148
Kamran Akmal, Naved-ul-Hasan, Shoaib Akhtar and Mohammad Asif did not bat.
FALL OF WICKETS: 1-23, 2-23, 3-67, 4-101, 5-127.

BOWLING: Gough 3.5-0-33-0; Broad 4-0-35-2; Mahmood 3-0-29-0; Dalrymple 2-0-10-1; Yardy 3-0-20-1; Collingwood 2-0-19-0.

Umpires: P J Hartley and N J Llong.